Monthly Archives: July 2012

Always RIGHT


Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes you can make as a leader is always holding the RIGHT card.

The RIGHT card “says” that since I am the highest positional leader in the situation that I am always RIGHT. But just because I can be RIGHT, does not mean that I am RIGHT.

 

It is possible to have the authority to be RIGHT, but not have the knowledge to be RIGHT. It is possible to be RIGHT and be wrong at the same time.

In his book “The 5 Levels of Leadership,” John Maxwell says “positional leadership is actually the lowest level of leadership. It is actually the starting point.”

 Yet so many people believe that once they become a positional leader, that they have arrived, and have acquired a huge amount of knowledge. Then because of their new found knowledge or position they suddenly become RIGHT all of the time.

Perhaps your greatest concern should never be about being wrong, that is going to happen.  Maybe one of your greatest concerns should be making sure that you are not using your positional authority to be RIGHT, in a situation where you might be wrong.

It is possible to have great leaders around you; people with great knowledge, great understanding and can see things that you might miss or see incorrectly. But if you consistently show them you are RIGHT, because you are the person in authority, then these people will eventually quit suggesting ideas, and most of them will move on to other adventures.

You have to understand, this is not a debate of whether or not you have the authority or position to be RIGHT.  You may have that, but do you really have enough room to make bad decisions, or get results that are less than what they could have been, because whenever there was a discussion; you had to be RIGHT.

I would suggest that you actually reserve the RIGHT to be WRONG. That as you approach your leadership, you assume and plan that at least every now and then you are going to be wrong about something. Or at the very least, someone is going to have a better way of doing something than you did, a less expensive way, or a way to produce a better product or a better service than we first had in mind.

Most leaders would suggest that we become better when we add great people to our teams. If you are adding great people to your teams; then it is almost certain that there are going to be times, when how they see something is not the way that you see it. The question is do you have the capacity to be wrong or will you play the RIGHT leadership card.   Here’s to being wrong!!

 

Here are some questions; I would love to hear your answers and comments.

  1. Do you have difficultly realizing and admitting that you are wrong?
  2. Do you have difficulty admitting that the people below your leadership level sometimes are right and sometimes have a better idea or better of doing something?
  3. Do you find it difficult to keep that RIGHT card stashed in the drawer?

Keep Going


Keep Going

I would agree that sometimes it is hard to get started, but once you do get started you have to face the second challenge. The challenge of continually making progress after the initial enthusiasm has worn off.

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You have to admit, that we sometimes get excited about that new thing we have started. Whether it is the book we wanted to write, the blog we wanted to write; or there could be a dozen different things that someone like you has finally got started on.

 

Unfortunately, there comes a time when you lose the feelings that came with starting and you have to reach down inside and find a new strength to continue to make progress.

 

Now, I am not saying that is will always be easy, because we have already stated that there are times of let-down, when you do not feel the initial encouragement. However, it is possible to take your project beyond the initial stage.

 

Below is a list of the few things that I think of when I need a little encouragement to keep making progress:

  1. Examine, revisit why you are doing this in the first place. (Now I realize that asking this question may cause you to lay some things aside and not do them anymore, but it will also allow you to focus on the good reasons why you started your new venture.)
  2. Remember that old saying, “Rome was not built in a day.” It will take some time to get where you want to go.
  3. Keep going even when you do not feel like it.
  4. Make a plan, and inside that plan make checkpoints where you can measure to see that you are making progress, no matter how small it might be.
  5. Keep going even when you do not feel like it.

 

And I finish with these two statements by John Maxwell:

  1. When you do what you know to do, you eventually feel motivated.
  2. Motivation is not the cause of action; motivation is the byproduct of action.

 

Now let me ask you a question; Do you feel like you do a good job following through, or do you struggle to finish too. What things do you do to get your discipline to keep going?

Stuck In a Rut


Stuck in a rut, is an old Alabama term, literally  from the days of riding mud trails. It was a deep hole of some length, which made it hard to get anywhere when you get in them.

Sometimes it is just hard to get started on your projects. You sit and think through them time and time again. You reason in your head that you want to do it or want to get it done. But somehow, you look up days later and have done little to make progress, if anything at all.

ImageThe discussion has been had at times, that if you do not act on something then you really do not believe in it. I will say that I can’t really argue with the statement; though it really hurts to realize that it might just be the truth.

            I have ideas wrote down for years that I wanted to do, but they had just  been sitting there for a long time, with me making little progress on them. Recently however I have started to work on a project or two. Now I have not made the greatest of progress, but any progress is better than no progress; which is what I was doing.

Here are 5 things that I have learned lately that have helped me to make progress.

*I am writing these tips from the perspective of writing.*

  1. Pick one, maybe two things to start working on.
    1. Picking too many things to start will just make you feel stressed before you get started.
  2. Define some areas of your project that have values that can be measured.
  3. Set times that you can measure the areas and determine what progress that you are making.
  4. Do not try to make it perfect the first time through, just get started.
  5. Make a set date to be done with the rough draft.
    1. If you do not get done by the date, you will still likely be further along than if you had not set a goal time to be reached.

Hope these suggestions help, what other suggestions would you add?